When the world watched this year’s papal conclave — whether on television or in the film “Conclave” — one image was unmistakable: a sea of men in scarlet and white, a visual reminder of a Church whose highest offices remain reserved for males. But what many viewers did not see was equally significant. They did not see Sister Raffaella Petrini walking into the Vatican City governor’s office for the first time, a woman occupying the most powerful civic role in the world’s smallest state. They did not see a woman casting a vote in the Synod of Bishops for the first time in 2,000 years of ecclesiastical history. They did not see Sister Simona Brambilla sitting for her first meeting as the prefect of a Vatican dicastery — an office once unthinkable for a woman to hold.

These moments mark the b

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